Passenger attacks Greyhound driver, tries to roll bus; dozens injured

Dozens of people are in the hospital after a passenger aboard a Greyhound bus bound for Phoenix from L.A. attacked the driver and apparently tried to roll the bus. By Sanders Content KMOV

TONOPAH, Ariz. -- Dozens of people are in the hospital after a passenger aboard a Greyhound bus bound for Phoenix from L.A. attacked the driver and apparently tried to roll the bus.

It happened at about 2 a.m. in Tonopah at the Burnt Well Rest Area, which is at about 490th Avenue.

Video from the scene showed the suspect, who has not been identified, in the back of a squad car. According to 3TV's Jill Galus, he was screaming, "They're going to kill me. Call my mom!"

The suspect girlfriend said he was "paranoid" and "did not want to be on the bus."

Despite the attack, the bus driver kept control of the steering wheel and managed to keep the vehicle upright while guiding it across the median and off the road, coming to a stop just feet from oncoming traffic.

Passengers said it was terrifying. More than one thought they were going to die.

"He started crying and I knew something was wrong," Gregory Forte said of the suspect.

Three people were air-lifted to local hospitals. Twenty-three more were transported via ground ambulances.

The remaining passengers -- between 12 and 20 according to different reports -- were being bused to the Greyhound depot in Phoenix. At least two infants are among those passengers.

3TV's Tess Rafols is with family members, awaiting their arrival.

"He just said that they were off-roading," said one woman who talked to her father, who was on board the Greyhound. "The bus just went off the road. ... One of the people in the very front had told him that someone had attacked the driver."

Another passenger says, "suspect was beating bus driver hard in the face and head" - all other passengers ran to help subdue him @azfamily